Posted on 03/17/2022 10:24:58 AM PDT by fireman15
SPANAWAY, Wash. — Two deputies with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office were shot by a man during a SWAT operation in Spanaway on Tuesday.
One of the deputies, Dom Calata, died on Wednesday from his injuries.
The suspect, described by Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer as a “three-strike violent felon,” was shot and killed by deputies.
Investigators with the Tacoma Police department said the operation started at around 8:30 a.m. Members of South Sound Gang Task Force were looking to arrest a man who had a warrant for second-degree felony assault.
Due to the man’s prior felony convictions, the task force asked the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team for assistance.
Troyer said the suspect was in a stolen car and deputies closed the road to ensure citizens wouldn’t get hurt.
Around 11:50 a.m., they pulled him over in a mobile home park in the 19000 block of Pacific Avenue South just north of the Roy Y. The man didn’t want to cooperate.
>>Photos of Pierce County deputies shot, wounded in Spanaway
Troyer said there was a gun battle and two deputies who are members of the SWAT team were shot.
Deputies fired back, striking the suspect and killing him.
Shortly after, there was a massive law enforcement response as officers, deputies and medics from multiple agencies responded.
(Excerpt) Read more at kiro7.com ...
“We are heartbroken to inform our community that Deputy Dom Calata has passed away,” the agency said in a Facebook update. “Our department members remain grateful for the outpouring of support we have received. We ask that you continue to keep Deputy Calata’s family in your prayers during this difficult time.”
Deputy Calata, a U.S. Army veteran who has served in the National Guard for the past seven years, is married and has a four-year-old son, according to KING.
He joined the PCSD nearly seven years ago, has been a member of the SWAT team for four years, and is assigned to patrol with the Edgewood Police Department, the PCSD said.
Sheriff Troyer said Deputy Calata is someone who “always stepped up and took care of business,” KING reported.
“He’s a local person who has done nothing but public service his whole entire life,” the sheriff added. “He is a big-hearted, great guy [who] got into this job for the right reasons.”
Was a heaven for misfits and recent felons back in the mid 70s - nothing has changed.
My daughter dated Brian off and on while at university. She described both as the funniest people she ever met. They sat behind her in classes and teased each other like two grade school boys. “It was hard to concentrate on the class because they were so funny!”
Yesterday she told me that if there is one saving grace of this all is that the two “sillies are back together making mischief like the old days”.
Thank you Dom for being my girl's friend and a friend to so many others. A true shining light lost too soon
Amen.
Thank you so much for mentioning this! And I am sorry for your daughter losing two friends. It is the good ones that so often end up in harms way.
I was not close but had worked with a couple of the deputies killed when the gunman ambushed and killed four of them in the coffee shop on Steele Street. My wife and I had been at the Pull-a-part junk yard across the street the day before and she wanted to go to the coffee shop but I took her to McDonalds instead.
There are a few amazing things in Spanaway... The car museum is spectacular, better than the one downtown. And we used to love to go to the ice skating rink at Sprinker Recreational Center. A lot of really great kids live there and the places beyond like Roy and Yelm. I could go on and on. So I don’t really share your impression. It is actually not a bad places.
It is actually not a bad places.
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Not when I was there in the early 70s.
“three-strike violent felon”
This used to qualify them for life in prison. Now it’s: 47 arrests for felonies ... YAWN... 0$ bail and freed
Not so much now, either. I work barely a mile from where this happened (as the crow flies). I work alone. My office door is always locked, and I always carry. If I don’t like the way you look, we talk through the door. Period.
OMG, no way I would've thought he was going to turn to be a racist!
...turn OUT to be a racist.
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